Chapter 1 I'm Dead...

"I'm dead..."

"No."

"I'm still alive."

Fragmented thoughts tumbled in the seawater, scattered spirits piecing themselves back together.

Gu Shen opened his eyes.

What he saw was not the real world, but a mental illusion within his mind sea.

Scenes flashed and alternated.

The opening was crimson flames, followed by collapsing mountain caves, and sweeping azure seawater...

Gu Shen was stunned.

These scenes were not unfamiliar to him; he had seen them before. Perhaps because of the intense pain, his thought processes became sluggish and uncontrollable.

But he quickly recalled where these images came from.

These scenes were all omens and reminders that the Bracelet of Calamity had shown him!

It was before the Frozen Lake mission that he had used the bracelet and seen these images.

At that time, the Bracelet of Calamity captured countless overlapping images, sending countless warning images from the perspective of a "drowned man." However, at that time, his focus was on the Frozen Lake mission, and he didn't pay attention to these disordered warnings... In fact, this was the "insidious" aspect of the Bracelet of Calamity, this divine artifact of fate.

It could indeed see the future, but it would deliberately hide the most dangerous scenes within the divination results.

The previous owner of the bracelet, Meng Xiao, died in a "divination" that he thought was correct.

And Gu Shen had suffered a loss as well.

"So, what the Bracelet of Calamity divined...the real calamity...did not come from Frozen Lake, but from the Sangzhou Cave."

He finally understood, and a sense of foreboding settled in his heart.

Memories from before he lost consciousness gradually flooded his mind.

...

...

Jia Wei's thrust was truly beyond Gu Shen's expectations.

He never expected that within the core area of the Tanyao, there would be a Fourth-Order Transcendent waiting for him. Now, thinking about it carefully, Jia Wei's appearance should have been a coincidence. If he had known his location all along, he would never have lingered around the mountain ridge.

That Great Knight of Guang Ming City hated him to the core—

If his location had really been exposed, Jia Wei would have jumped into the mountain at the first opportunity to take his life!

Jia Wei was definitely among the top three people in the world who wanted to kill him the most.

However, the power of that thrust was still somewhat lacking.

Gu Shen recalled the scene of him falling back into the Tanyao and couldn't help but feel a pang of fear.

He finally fell back to the bottom of the mountain, but a huge sense of ominousness struck, and countless mountain ash and heat waves immediately swelled and surged. He knew that the long-dormant Tanyao was about to erupt at this moment!

In the instant before his consciousness faded, Gu Shen frantically crawled back into the array domain of that decaying heart.

Everything that followed was no longer his concern.

"Is this...the bottom of the Ice Sea?"

After opening his eyes, Gu Shen began to survey his surroundings.

He could only see pitch blackness. The mountain body had disintegrated, and what met his eyes was a cage formed by countless interconnected seawater chains. The coldness permeated through the seawater and into the stone walls.

The Sangzhou Cave had been shattered.

"Chu Ling?"

Gu Shen tried to call out, but there was no response.

This indicated that the spiritual link between Chu Ling and himself had been completely severed. This place likely had a spiritual shielding restriction similar to a disaster zone.

This was the true deep sea. After the Sangzhou Cave shattered, this fragment of land, wrapped in the longevity art array patterns, detached from the main body of the island, carrying Gu Shen as it continued to fall, fall...

Gu Shen rubbed his temples.

The situation was terrible.

He had lost his sense of time and had no idea how long he had been unconscious, let alone what the world outside was like now.

"The Sangzhou Cave is destroyed...they should be looking for me everywhere now, right?"

Gu Shen took a deep breath and calmed down.

Jia Wei struck to kill with a single blow, clean and swift, and his withdrawal would also be decisive.

The mountain ash of the Tanyao happened to shield the power of authority. As a result, the fact that he was ambushed might truly be unknown to anyone... This was the ultimate clue that those outside who wanted to find him could grasp.

After calming his mind, Gu Shen sorted out the current situation.

What was happening outside...

It was actually irrelevant to him now.

Because his current "location" was at the bottom of the Ice Sea, where the source energy was chaotic. In such a vast sea area, even if a God-Throne took action to find him, it would be like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Relying on others to save him was simply impossible.

"Fortunately, my source energy is still sufficient..."

Gu Shen narrowed his eyes.

The first thing he did after regaining consciousness was to check his wounds.

The two battles with Owl, as well as Jia Wei's ambush...had caused him significant trauma. Even with the Fire of Vitality, it would take some time for these injuries to heal.

But the spirit force overdrawn by [Truth. Extinguished Candle] had already recovered to thirty percent.

Having thirty percent of his spirit force was very reassuring. This spirit force was enough for Gu Shen to open the Pure Land and retrieve the source energy that the Pure Land had nurtured itself from the flower garden.

For a transcendent.

Not eating or drinking was nothing.

The essence of transcendent cultivation was to achieve a leap in the level of life. In this process, basic physiological needs such as these would become lower and lower.

In the eyes of those high-level transcendent beings, so-called eating and drinking were merely "appetites."

The importance of food was far less than that of "source energy"—

Eating and drinking were to replenish nutrition, so that the body, bones, and cells had vitality.

With enough transcendent source energy, this could be easily achieved!

"If a normal person were trapped in the Ice Sea, there would only be one path - death. The source energy here is extremely chaotic, not only unable to be absorbed, but also interfering with the transcendent's own source energy. To maintain basic survival, one needs at least a fully formed 'domain'..."

"And 'domain' consumes source energy at all times."

Gu Shen stretched out his palm and touched the array pattern of the longevity art.

His palm instantly frosted over upon contact with the seawater, but the coldness of the [Pure Land] immediately erased the frost from his fingertips.

The Five Continents had sent many transcendents to the Ice Sea to carry out missions. The minimum requirement for a team leader was Fourth-Order, precisely because of the Ice Sea's chaotic source energy, which required at least a "domain" to resist.

"My 'Pure Land' is currently in winter, with great cold and extinction, which happens to coincide with the source energy attribute of the 'Ice Sea.'"

Gu Shen stared at his fingertips, and the pressure in his heart eased somewhat.

"Is this considered the blessing of fate?"

He couldn't help but mock himself.

The Pure Land could perfectly envelop the fragment of land covered by the longevity art array patterns, which meant that as long as the source energy produced by the flower garden was sufficient, he would not be frozen or starved to death in the foreseeable future.

But it also meant that Gu Shen was trapped here.

"Once I leave the longevity art array domain, my source energy consumption rate will greatly accelerate..."

Gu Shen raised his head.

He condensed the spirit force he could currently use and probed towards the area above the array domain, countless spirits gathered, twisted into a thin strand, pierced through the Ice Sea and drilled upwards, like a small snake.

This was "releasing the line."

He wanted to see just how deep into the sea he had fallen.

But...what was disheartening was that the strand of spirit force he released spread to its limit in the sea and still saw no end.

"With my current strength, there's no way to return to land."

Gu Shen retracted his spirit and silently calculated: "I can't even explore the depth of this sea area clearly. To leave here, I need at least enough spirit force and source energy to ensure safety..."

If he wasn't mistaken, there were also black spots in this sea area, as well as regularly distorted black holes. Once he encountered them, he would have to detour and would completely lose his direction.

Even if his spirit force could see the world on the surface of the sea, and could sense where the light was, he couldn't easily set off.

Any carelessness would only lead to death!

"However..."

"If I advance to Fourth-Order, there might be hope."

With this in mind, Gu Shen stretched out his palm and summoned his blazing fire.

At this moment, the blazing fire was already an extremely dazzling cluster, and because it had just devoured the blood fire, a large amount of "fire of vitality" was waiting to be transformed. This was the inevitable path to advance to Fourth-Order; there were no shortcuts.

"The blood fire was just devoured by me and needs time to be transformed."

Gu Shen narrowed his eyes. At this moment, he had nothing left but time!

Gu Shen suddenly realized that this tribulation, although it almost cost him his life, he had ultimately survived... So-called after surviving a great disaster, there will be great fortune!

In the outside world, he needed time to cultivate.

But those enemies would not give him time.

The Sky God-Throne, the Light God-Throne, the Storm God-Throne... These three highest seats had already set their sights on him. As time went on, they might discover the truth about the "fall of the Underworld King" from him.

But here.

He didn't have to worry about being spied on, being noticed, being perceived.

"Thinking about it this way..."

Gu Shen turned his head and looked at the upright stone wall. The decaying heart was submerged in seawater, surrounded by dark ancient inscriptions that swirled and engraved, filling the wall.

"This is a rare place for cultivation. Besides being undisturbed and quiet enough, there are also precious 'ancient longevity texts'..."

He lowered his eyes and smiled silently, flipping his palm to suppress the blood fire and blazing fire back.

In the silent Ice Sea, a gaunt figure slowly leaned against the stone wall, exhaled a long breath, and began to cultivate with focused attention. Above his head was a decaying, withered heart, and behind him were countless dense, obscure characters forming the branches of an ancient tree, with wind and snow swirling around to form the walls of this withered cage.

Gu Shen closed his eyes, and a wisp of not-so-pure firelight ignited between his eyebrows.

He allowed himself to just...

Sink into the deep sea.

Be annihilated in the darkness.

Only, no matter how deep and dark it was, within the wind and snow of the stone wall, there was still a glimmer of brilliance that never went out.

...

...

At the edge of the Ice Sea, several figures hovered in the clouds.

They gazed into the distance at this sea area that should have disappeared.

"Jia Di...are you sure Gu Shen really didn't come out?"

There were a total of six figures, who were none other than the six saints of the Storm Church. At this moment, the Spring Plough Saint, standing at the forefront, narrowed his eyes and stared at the direction where the Sangzhou Cave had disappeared, and asked slowly.

"The power of [Tide] has all been used to push the undercurrents of the Ice Sea."

Jia Di was also unsure: "Are you saying that Gu Shen might have faked his death?"

"..."

Spring Plough did not reply, but remained silent.

Beside him, a burly saint in black said, "Those old guys in Nagano are full of tricks, especially the heads of the Three Schools and Five Great Families, who are all old foxes...it's not impossible for them to do such a thing."

"I agree with Ju Lu's statement."

The slender Sea Child Saint also spoke: "How could a top genius like Gu Shen die so easily? Either something else happened in the Sangzhou Cave..."

The saints looked at each other and spoke one after another.

"With such ample time for evacuation, it's indeed suspicious that Gu Shen died in the [Tanyao] with a 'fake death'."

"However, in the images of the obituary announced by Nagano, Gu Qilin looked sad and aged overnight, which doesn't seem fake."

"Could he really have just died like that?"

Jia Di fell silent. It was rare for the saints within the church to meet. The internal strife in recent years had gradually subsided, and it was almost a miracle that they would travel together because of the death of an outsider.

"Gu Shen should really be dead."

After some discussion, Spring Plough Saint finally spoke, and the expressions of the other saints clearly revealed surprise.

"Besides Gu Shen, there's another super genius who didn't leave the Sangzhou Cave..."

Spring Plough said slowly, "Vermillion Bird."

The saints were momentarily stunned. Before the news of Gu Shen's death, the death of the Vermillion Bird Envoy seemed like only a small ripple.

Vermillion Bird also did not leave the Sangzhou Cave.

But what was worth pondering was...the Tower of Origin had not announced this news at all. They chose to hide the news of the Vermillion Bird Envoy's death, or rather, to hide all news of the Vermillion Bird Envoy!

For the top forces of the Five Continents, the whereabouts of this level of genius could not be hidden.

One of the Four Divine Envoys, leaving with only three. The Tower of Origin wanted to hide this?

"The loss of an S-class genius, especially a top leader shouldering the important task of the 'merger' of the two continents...if he died, this news should also be blocked." Spring Plough said slowly, "Blocking news is something that the East Continent is good at. Don't forget how the East Continent has survived these twenty years."

Gu Changzhi's "death" had been perfectly blocked.

"Yes..."

Jia Di understood what Spring Plough meant: "If Gu Shen died, at least the East Continent would hide it for a while."

"But what does it mean for the East Continent to announce it so quickly?" Ju Lu Saint was puzzled: "An S-class genius dies for no reason in the Tanyao? Isn't that a laughing stock for other forces?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the saints fell into silence.

No one here was a fool.

At this moment, they all guessed the true meaning of this announcement of death... The East Continent was not prepared to hide the death, but to conduct an investigation, to hold someone accountable!

Could an S-class genius like Gu Shen die in a natural disaster like the Tanyao eruption without human intervention?

"Everyone, prepare to welcome the East Continent's delegation."

Spring Plough said expressionlessly, "Before the God-Throne Lord returns, whatever they want, we can only give."